Much like other claims made by opponents of oil sands development, shocking stories about higher cancer rates among aboriginals living near such projects are falling apart with close scrutiny.

After reviewing the incidence of cancer in the Fort Chipewyan, Alta., aboriginal community between 1992 and 2011, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. James Talbot, said Monday the overall cancer rate in the community is not significantly higher than elsewhere — 81 cases, compared with 79 that would be expected in the rest of Alberta.

While three types of cancer — cervical cancer (four cases), lung cancer (eight cases) and bile duct cancer (three cases) — are slightly more prevalent, the first two are preventable through vaccination and less smoking, he said. The third is more complicated and has been linked to such risk factors as obesity, diabetes, alcohol, viral hepatitis and family history.

“There isn’t strong evidence for an association between any of these cancers and environmental exposure,” Dr. Talbot told reporters after releasing the report in Edmonton.

“The perception is that there is more cancer, and to some extent the perception is correct, but it’s not unique to this community,” he said.

So much for the environmental movement’s latest trash talk about the oil sands as a human health hazard, which expanded on a campaign against the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline that has accused it of threatening the climate, promoting oil exports to China and being reviewed by biased regulators.

The pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf, proposed by TransCanada Corp., is now in the final stage of a U.S. State Department review and President Barack Obama has suggested a decision will come this spring.

Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the U.S. Senate’s environment committee, fronted the health-scare angle when she said at a news conference in Washington on Feb. 26: “I have shown you, or at least I have told you, how health miseries follow the tar sands,” she said, arguing that more cancer is not in the U.S. national interest. “Health miseries follow tar sands from extraction, to transport, to refining, to waste disposal.”

Claims that oil sands development is responsible for the spread of cancer among aboriginals have been circulating since 2006 when John O’Connor, an Alberta doctor, expressed concerns about what he considered to be elevated cancer rates around Fort Chipewyan, a community of 1,200 located 220 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

In a 2009 study, the Alberta Cancer Board found that rates for some cancers are higher in Fort Chipewyan than in Alberta’s general population, but a year later the Royal Society of Canada found that “there is currently no credible evidence of environmental contaminant exposures from oil sands reaching Fort Chipewyan at levels expected to cause elevated human cancer rates.”

An investigation by Alberta’s College of Physicians and Surgeons found Dr. O’Connor’s public statements about the health of Fort Chipewyan’s residents contained “mistruths, inaccuracies and unconfirmed information.”

But that didn’t discourage Dr. O’Connor, a Greenpeace campaigner, from appearing at the news conference with Senator Boxer to bolster the anti-Keystone XL message by claiming there is a public health crisis in the community.

The Alberta Health Services cancer report is part of routine monitoring rather than a research report, Dr. Talbot said Monday.

His recommendations to the community include increasing the number of human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccinations, enhancing smoking prevention and cessation efforts, increasing pap smear screening and cervical cancer treatment programs, and conducting a community health assessment focused on chronic disease prevention that is acceptable to the community.

‘We know that for tobacco smoking, aboriginal communities are hard hit. They have a significant proportion of smokers’

A large number of health services are available from the Nunee Health Authority, Alberta Health Services and First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, but HPV vaccinations and pap smear screenings are below the provincial average, Dr. Talbot said.

“We know that for tobacco smoking, aboriginal communities are hard hit,” he said. “They have a significant proportion of smokers.”

Dr. Talbot has been eager to share the results of his study with Fort Chipewyan residents and get going with cancer prevention programs, but so far to no avail.

“It has been my intention to discuss this report with people of Fort Chipewyan first to make them aware of the findings, and engage them in how we can improve prevention,” Dr. Talbot said.

“We have been attempting to do so since the fall, and unfortunately the most recent meeting scheduled for February was cancelled.”

Like other studies that don’t support oil sands opponents’ claims, the Alberta health study was dismissed.

“There’s nothing [here] in regards to a comprehensive, independent study that we’ve been requesting, where government and industry have no participation in it,” said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.